China Development Bank (CDB) and Caisse des Dépôts Sign Agreement to Support SMEs

Caisse des Dépôts and China Development Bank, on October 28, 2009, signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement paving the way for a new era of financial cooperation between Chinese and French long-term financial institutions.

In the constest of the agreement, which will have project finance; asset management; risk control, governance and transparency and sustainable development and climate change as main areas of cooperation, a particular emphasis will be given to SME cooperation.

The institutions agree to establish a Sino-French SME Fund, with two sub-funds dedicated to growth SMEs established in France and in China and contributing to the development of economic and trade cooperation between both countries, to ensure a two ways investment stream.

In addition, they have also agreed to set up a cooperation mechanism between China Development Bank and Fonds Stratégique d’Investissement (FSI).

The agreement on those two projects could be signed before the end of the year.

A first working group will be dedicated to climate change issues, and will serve as a platform for cooperating, exchanging, and sharing expertise in the fields such as, for instance, financing of clean technologies and carbon finance.